Afreximbank Okays $17bn Loans For Nigeria

The African Export-Import Bank has said it approved $17bn loans for Nigerian entities between its commencement of operations in 1994 and December last year.

The President, Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Oramah, was quoted in a statement to have said this during a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the bank’s facilities had made major impact on critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, adding that the lender had outstanding loans of about $3.5bn in Nigeria as of December 31, 2017.

He stated that the sectors benefitting from the bank’s facilities were financial services, transport, hospitality, manufacturing, agro-allied, oil and gas, power, and telecommunications, among others.

Oramah said that Afreximbank’s support to Nigeria included provision of liquidity and trade finance lines of more than $800m during the banking consolidation, when many international lenders cut credit lines to the country, and the provision of $1.8bn to support the economy during the recent oil price shock.

According to him, the bank’s current initiatives in Nigeria include the development of testing and inspection centres across the country in collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria; establishment of a centre of excellence for tertiary health care/medical park, and potential participation in the Nigeria SEZ Investment Company Limited being promoted by the government.

The bank said it would support industrial projects through loans to strategic banks; arrange and disburse $750m to the Bank of Industry in June; provide trade and letter of credit lines to all Nigerian banks in close coordination with the Central Bank of Nigeria in order to ensure access to trade finance; and develop an Afreximbank Africa Trade Centre in Abuja.

Oramah added that the institution was willing to work with the government to arrange financing of up to $1bn to support the government’s investments in trade-enabling infrastructure.